Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Shot distance on elk

LMAO ! Ole NoElkSlayer/ Maser/ Jason Cardenas has never seen an Elk. Much less shot one.
Kinda hard to make 800 yard shots with your Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun. 😂😂😂

40 years of hunting elk and about 20 taken, Longest shot was 487 yards with a 338WM but most an of my rifles could have handled the shot. Next longest was 411 followed by 400, 350 and then all the rest at 300 and under. Closest opportunity was about 20-25 feet but I passed and took another at about 25 yards.

Never hunted anything bigger than Whitetail. Longest shot 75 yards rest about 50 yards. Still takes a keen eye and controlled breathing.

I’ve got a 225 yard range at home & a 500 yard elk vitals sized rock. Nobody in our group can’t hit that rock 1st shot from a field rest including 12 year old grandson. We take 2 trips to a ranch with a setup to over 1200 yards with gusty winds to prepare. 12”x24” metal targets so narrower than an elks lungs. Shooting seated resting on my pack 7&800 yards are doable over 70% of the time wind dependent using a 300 Weatherby 180 grain TTSX & Zeiss z800 reticle. The preparation during the year makes it much easier to make a 400 -500 yard shot at an elk. Average for 20 animals is a little under 300 in the area we hunt.

Most hunters don’t practice & prepare adequately for longer shots at game. Some who hunt successfully are lucky to hit a pie plate at 200 yards off a bench. We know a guy well with that skill level. He took a running shot at a bull at 500 yards. I told him that elk was in more danger of being struck by lightning than that bullet. Some shots are missed even by well prepared hunters but most by guys shooting beyond their effective range.

Originally Posted by UpThePole
Nobody can "consistently" make an 800 yard shot on a living animal in real world conditions.
Damn few can make an 800 yard shot on a fixed target with wind flags every 100 yards.
in fact damn few can make 100% killing shots at 300 yards in real world conditions.
But wolves and Yotes have to eat too. Easier for them to take down a cripple than a healthy animal.

So what you're saying is that military trained snipers do not actually kill out past that range, you are a fool.

No kidding, that was real DB reply to the OPs question.

Disagree. When someone makes a statement with an ‘absolute’ about what is ‘only’ needed for elk, or any hunting for that matter, without having a vast amount of experience hunting different types of territory.

The poster is hanging a shingle that reads ‘Come prove me wrong’....Which wasn’t hard to do, if you read the original post.

🦫

I've only taken a paltry 4 cow elk...in 30 yrs out here, ha. However, I am blessed to have shot many ( a couple dozen) elk sized Plains Game in South Africa. ( Bear with me) My average on the cow elk is 174yds, with the farthest at 250yds. In South Africa, 45yds to 90yds with 150yd was tops. The longest shooting in my life was in Namibia ( very open) and I killed the majority of my game around 130 -150yds; only 2 were at 370-380yds and one at 300yds. I personally do not "like" shooting far. I grew up in the Big Thicket of East Texas. Took me 20yrs to get a long shot (which was on a pipeline Right of Way) at 276 long steps, the rest were from 60yds to 90yds! I hunted with a bow hard for 5 yrs straight (deer/hogs) there and for mule deer in Colorado. All the game shot in Texas was 10yds and under, 35-45 in Colorado. BUT, bowhunting taught me "how" to be a hunter. So, some guys like to shoot way out there, and hunt in places where they can. I practice out to 300yds here, but I check my rifles grouping out to 500, just in case one gets wounded. I just won't shoot at game anymore out past 300 or a bit. But that's just me. I know I can get "in amongst them"....:) PS I'm so jealous of all you guys that have killed dozens of them!!!!

I have taken 1 elk.it took me 17 years to draw a PA tag, it was a cow. After three days of my guide and I walking the mountain and low lands I had a chance to score, two adult cows and a young 6 pt bull walked out into a turnip field out of the trees at 155 yards according to my range finder. The longest shot I had made to date. Where I hunt deer 100 yds is a long shot. I was shooting a 30-06 off my bog pod. One shot behind the shoulder, she took one step and went down. When we gutted her I found i had shot off the top of the heart. She was 4 years old and weighed approx 650lbs live weight. I had this rign made from one of the ivory's.

She sure had a purty mouth......

Ran into a young man today who hunts in one of the Units that I hunt. Its open country with deep canyons, lots of openings and pockets of dense timber. Its steep and ugly and those that go there year after year are serious hunters. He hunts with friends and relatives and huts several miles from my camping spot. He is in his late thirties and killed a similar number of elk . They average 7 bull elk out of the unit annually and average shot is out near the 500 + yard mark, with his longest kill at 1150 yards, and many at 500 plus. He has never lost one he has hit. He practices frequently has a custom 7 mm Mag, and seems pretty much dialed in.

Me too.
My record is 3...at once.
I have a few one kill events, with various pickups.
A cow catcher saves the pickup imo.

Good lord, it never ceases to amaze me the shiit a guy reads here!! 😂😂

800 yards is a chip shot if you use a 350 yard zero.

I've hunted more elk than all you combined have shot!

I suspect you have hunted more elk than you have shot as well!

Don't project your your lack of experience, proficiency and skill on to others.

Exactly where does one shoot 300yds not in "real world conditions?"

UtP lives in a fake world. 300 yards is not that tough!